Primary (ages 6-9)

Material appropriate for primary age groups

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

When 14-year-old William Kamkwamba’s Malawi village was hit by a drought in 2001, everyone’s crops began to fail. His family didn’t have enough money for food, let alone school, so William spent his days in the library. He came across a book on windmills and figured out how to build a windmill that could bring electricity to his village. Everyone thought he was crazy but William persevered and managed to create a functioning windmill out of junkyard scraps. Several years later he figured out how to use the windmill for irrigation purposes.

This book has been included in WOW’s Kids Taking Action Booklist. For our current list, visit our Boolist page under Resources in the green navigation bar.

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match / Marisol McDreonald No Combina

Marisol McDonald, a biracial, nonconformist, soccer-playing pirate-princess with brown skin and red hair, celebrates her uniqueness.

Grandfather Counts

When Helen’s grandfather, Gong Gong, comes from China to live with her family, he’s shocked to find that none of his grandchildren speak Chinese. How will he communicate with them? At first he keeps to himself. Then one day he joins Helen to watch the trains. He starts counting the train cars in Chinese, and she repeats the words. Then Helen says the numbers in English. They continue to teach each other, and Helen even learns her Chinese name, which means “flower.” In this luminously illustrated intergenerational story, the devotion between a young girl and her grandfather helps them overcome barriers of age and language.

Good Families Don’t

Good Families Don’t is Munsch’s funniest book yet, about a risqué subject that is guaranteed to have children–and adults–rolling in the aisles.When Carmen tries to tell her parents that there is a big fart lying on her bed, they don’t believe her.  “Good families like ours,” they tell her, “do not have farts.”  But when they go upstairs to see, the fart attacks them–as it does the similarly disbelieving police when they arrive.  Carmen is left to deal with the situation on her own, which she does with the help of a rose.

The Adventures of Medical Man

Being sick or injured is no fun for children, but not knowing what is happening may be worse. Enter Dr. Michael Evans, who will explain to young readers everything they need to know when an illness or injury occurs. Uniquely structured around five different movie genres and one comic book, each chapter features a common illness or injury with Dr. Mike in the starring role, explaining the causes, symptoms and cures Whether it’s a nut allergy in the action-packed “They Came From Mars!,” a broken wrist in the bone-chilling “The Werewolf Who Snapped” or strep throat in the suspense-filled “Adventures of Medical Man and Wondrous Boy,” each story is packed with fascinating medical information. Other common conditions covered in the book include concussion, ear infection and asthma and are vividly explained. Complete with diagrams, sidebars and a glossary and dramatized by Gareth Williams’s stunning illustrations, this book will be a comfort to any child dealing with an injury or illness.

What’s He Doing Now?

When a young boy named Lewis finds out that his mother is going to have a baby, he is full of questions: What is the baby doing now? How does his mom feel with a baby growing inside her? When he touches her tummy, it feels like she swallowed a bunch of butterflies! When the baby has hiccups, it sounds like popcorn! Month by month, he becomes more and more curious about what the baby is doing inside his mother’s tummy.Lewis thinks that having a new baby around could be kind of neat… but a bit worrisome at the same time. He begins to wonder if the baby will like him, and becomes a little afraid that he is not special to his parents anymore. However, he soon discovers he has an important place in his family — and being a big brother is actually kind of fun! An ideal book for parents and children to share.

Taming Horrible Harry

This is a charming story about one really bad monster who learns to change his ways. Written originally in French, and illustrated with delightfully ghoulish paintings by the Québecois artist known simply as Rogé, Taming Horrible Harry is a wonderful tale about the power of stories. At the gates of a beautiful forest, Harry the monster lies in wait. One day, as monsters are wont to do, he frightens a little girl, who runs away leaving behind a peculiar object. Harry picks it up, turns it over, bites it … spits it out, and throws it down in a fury! He wonders what kind of a thing he has found. As it turns out, the object is a book … and one way or another, Harry learns to read it, and his life is changed forever. This delightful story will enchant both young readers and their parents, teachers, and librarians, as they discover together, the magic of reading.

Rude Ramsay And The Roaring Radishes

In Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes, bestselling author Margaret Atwood offers a delightfully ridiculous tale about the virtues of resisting restrictions.  Rude Ramsay has reached the end of his rope!  Sick of dining on rock-hard rice, rubbery ribs, wrinkled ravioli, and raw rhinoceros, Ramsay and Ralph the red- nosed rat resolve to leave their rectangular residence (and Ramsay’s revolting relatives) on a quest for more refreshing repast.  Along the way they encounter the raven-haired Rillah, a romantic rectory, and a patch of roaring radishes.  Together Ramsay, Ralph and Rillah reveal that sometimes the grass truly is greener on the other side of the rampart.

With renowned author Margaret Atwood’s rollicking text and Dusan Petricic’s devilish and insightful illustrations, Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radishes is a rare and rewarding treat for readers of all ages.

A Circle Of Cats

One a quiet day, when the wind was still, the creek could be heard all the way up to where the old beech stood.  Under its branches, cats would come to dream and be dreamed.  Black cats and calicos, white cats and marmalade ones, too.  But they hadn’t yet gathered the day the orphan girl fell asleep among its roots, nestling in the weeds and long grass like the gangly, tousle-haired girl she was.  Her names was Lillian.

Lillian is an orphan who lives with her aunt on a homested miles from anyone, surrounded by uncharted forest.  She wanders the woods, chasing after squirrels and rabbits and climbing trees like a possum.  Free-spirited and independent, Lillian is kindard soul to the many wild cats who gather around the ancient beech tree.  One day, while she is under the beech, Lillian is bitten by a poisonous snake.  The cats refuse to let her die, and use their magic to turn her into one of their own.  How she becomes a girl again is a lyrical, original folklore that begs to be read aloud.  Set in the hill country outside of the author’s fictional city of Newford, A Circle of Cats is the much anticipated first picture book by longtime friends Charles de Lint and Charles Vess, whose art is as magical as the story.